Bonds Books

"The author has written a charming, captivating story in Kindred Bond... Deborah Raney paints a beautiful picture of romantic love and the importance of family." --Christian Library Journal, Fall, 1998

"This is a delightful story of love, spiritual growth and God's ability to help us put closure on our pain if we allow Him to. The emotional depth of these characters brings them to life and makes for an exciting, fast reading story. --Jill Robertson, BookBrowser, January 1999

"This is an original and engrossing story of two decent Christians who must resolve difficult problems, one that women will enjoy." --Church Libraries, Spring 1999

"[Kindred Bond] provides an impressive testimony to how god's love and understanding can help resolve the most confused human relationships." --The Christian Observer, January 1999

This book is about a young woman, Claire, who has moved to a new town, where she meets Michael, a nursing home administrator. During their relationship, they discover that they have a common tie to the past. The book then shows the 2 struggling to overcome the difficulties from the past.

The book was a great romance book, but there was more to this book than just romance. To some degree, there was a murder mystery at the nursing home. There was also the lesson of forgiveness that Claire and Michael discovered as they revisited their past. And there was Nana and her love and concern for Michael and Claire.

This is a book that I would highly recommend.

Claire Anderson and Michael Meredith have something in common. At first it draws them together. But just when everything is going good, a terrible secret threatens to tear them apart.

In the meantime, there is something fishy going on a Riverview Manor. Can Michael figure out what it is before it hurts his patients and adversely affects his career?

Deborah Raney has woven this intriguing tale in her novel, "Kindred Bond." Her characters breathe life as they struggle with deep, heartfelt needs. What I loved most was the message that hidden sins and a painful past cannot be stuffed away and forgotten without the cleansing power of God's forgiveness. The spiritual message coupled with the constant question of "will their love survive?" will keep you turning pages until the end!

Well, someone beat me to this review and wrote a very good summary so I'll keep it short.
This volume is the best one in my opinion in terms of story, character interaction and the art (greatly improved).
It's got a lot of humor even though it is dealing with serious issues and the stories are once again well developed and interesting.
I'm just hoping the rest of the volumes come out faster (not in June...I can't wait that long)!!!
Bottom line: worth EVERY penny you spend :)

I love the story between these two lovers. I agree with the other reviewers that this couple has all the same problems that other couples have. They ask themselves am I good enough? Can I make him happy?

But I did find Ran a little insecure in this one. After eveything that he and Kei have been through to think that Kei would just dump him for a woman. I think that the second time Ran thinks Kei is cheating on him, Kei should have said, "Fine, leave if you think I think so little of you as to throw all the time we have been together out the window along with all the memories and love."

I love Book 1 and 2. Book 3 is just as enticing. The translation is solid. Ran and Kei are simply endearing and my favorite Yaoi couple. I am not too fond of Kai but Masa is intriguing. Too bad Kodaka decides to pair up Kai and Masa. I would have prefer Masa to have someone more compatible. Oh well!. Book 3 has 3 stories. First 2 are on Ran and Kei, which are excellent. The first one is comical yet tender. The second one is my favorite. Ran and Kei are forced to question their relationship. Will it stand the test of time? Will they be able to remain true to each other? Kodaka does a great job despite the limitation of words in a manga. She even manage to inject some comical moments in a serious subject. Ran's doubts and Kei's response are beautifully depicted. And of course the erotic sex scenes though the rape scene is a trifle disturbing.
The last story on Kai and Masa is a trifle sober but manage to justify to the reader Masa's love for Kai. Do yourself a favor and get Kizuna. Meanwhile I am impatiently waiting for books 4 to 6 which the publisher has announced to be released in 2005.

uwa! finally! together at last! kind of... very nice! i like kizuna bacause it proves that even the perfect couples are psycho sometimes ^^ haha

If you are a Kizuna fan, then you know what I am talking about when I say that this story line just keeps getting better. I am happy that she is finally giving us more on the romance between Masa and Kai. I have been waiting on that couple for a while. It is a bit angsty but getting there. I totally recomend it.

Compared to Vol 7, erotic sex has somewhat toned down in Vol 8. But for us fans, sex is no longer "a must" in Kizuna. Volume 8 is about overcoming one's haunted pasts and it is beautifully written as Ran and Kai are forced to face their ghosts. Ran has been quietly debating to take up Kendo again, a sport he loves but is forced to give up due to an accident which left him half paralyzed years ago. Kai is haunted by his own rape during his captivity years ago, a scar which suddenly surfaces while Masa tries to make love to him. This scene is all the more touching when Kai realizes his own terrible action upon Ran (Vol 1 remember?). Kai's remorse, Ran's comforting words and Kei's quiet eavesdropping is my favorite scene in this volume.
So how do Ran and Kai conquer their demons ? By challenging each other in Kendo, of course. And I do salute Kodaka for her remarkable story telling skill in this.
Love is certainly not lacking in this volume. Far from it. Ran and Kei is such a loving couple. Kei is certainly Ran's anchor from the moment Ran decides to take up Kendo again till the end of the fight. And Masa's pain as he realizes Kai's hidden scar is a most touching moment.
This is a most stirring and meaningful volume. And I hope bebeautiful will give us the remaining 2 volumes this year. Sadly the Japanese tankoubon is only up to Vol 10 as the brilliant Kodaka does tend to drag her feet.

When I started the book it was interesting. Felix Lieter and his wife got killed by Franz Sanchez and his henchmen. Bond met Pam for a meeting that Felix was supposed to be at but he was dead so he couldn't be there.There were a couple of Sanchez'z men looking at them.

I know everyone hates the movie(I don't) that this book is based on. Well, if that's the case, read the book, as it is actually better than the movie(although the tanker chase just doesn't read as exciting as watching it). Most people dislike Gardner's book's when compared with Fleming's, but this one is top notch. The only problem is, Gardner goes to slightly...schizofrenic means to tie License to Kill in with the on-going Fleming series. Seeing as that Milton Krest appeared in an earlier(but almost completly unknown) Fleming Bond short story, and Felix Leiter got his leg and an arm bitten off in Fleming's Live and Let Die, Gardner has to resort to ignoring Milton Krest's death in "The Hildebrand Rarity" and the shark bites of Leiter's false limbs.

John Gardner's screenplay approach to writing novels pays off. This is his first novel based on the screenplay of a Bond film and he seems to have found his niche even though some of these events are a retelling from Ian Fleming's novel "Live and Let Die" with the same character being mangled again! However, this novel is based on Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson's story for Timothy Dalton's James Bond in LICENCE TO KILL. It remarkably makes for an interesting read from an otherwise unsatisfactory film adding detail to scenes and venturing inside the head of the main character exploring his feelings and motivations. For John Gardner this is pretty inspiring stuff.

I admit that I intended to purchased this book simply because my grandmother, Jeanne Belle Osby Goodwin is one of the featured 100 voices. But as I read through some of the other essays, the song and the thousands of voices that I have heard sing its choruses filled my heart and mind with such glory. This book became a must have book for my loved ones. "Sing a song full of the hope..." We are a people of many trials and tribulations. This song, and the written words of the 100 serve as potent reminders that we can,do and will persevere- to sweet victory!

Julian Bond and Sondra K. Wilson have blazed a trail in editing this book. Mostly well-known Americans, but also some hidden gems, share with the reader what the Johnson brothers' song means to them.

And it means a lot to a cross section of Americans. One friend noted that if you read the book in one setting, as she did, you get a clear sense of how African American families taught their children to be revolutionaries. These children were taught about their history, and they were given the tools to dream and do something about their future. They had no choice; they had to march on until victory was won! And they did, from shacks in Mississippi, middle-class homes in Chicago and upper-class environments in Hollywood (where they often still could not get a decent meal in a restaurant), they were taught to fight for their freedom. They marched on--on buses, at "white only" lunch counters, over bridges with dogs and police daring them to cross,down lonely country roads with the KKK looking on--and though hundreds of marches, they fulfilled the dreams of their ancestors.

One of the real treasures of the book, besides the wonderful essays, is that one gets the sense, through exquisite historical photos, of how broad the African American experience is and continues to be. There are poor black women chopping cotton, and black men being killed. But there are also photograpshs of young black women on horseback in the 1950s, muslim women at a mosque, photographs of Muhammad Ali, James Weldon Johnson and his wife looking lovingly at each other, proud black women on their way to church and young children all dressed up to perform in some special show for their parents. These photos give you a sense that despite the hardship, we might be making some progress--that the race is okay and might survive.

I would like to thank Bond and Wilson for sharing with us the best of our culture. As one NY Amsterdam News' reviewer noted, "If you breathe, you should buy this book." It is a perfect gift for any occasion.

In 1900 James Weldon Johnson, and his brother J. Rosamond Johnson, wrote a song for a chorus of five hundred black school children, in Jacksonville, Florida, to sing in celebration of Lincoln's birthday. The song was originally published by mimeograph, and intended only for that year's remembrance of President Lincoln. Yet, the black school children of Jacksonville kept singing. ...and because the song reflected the truth of the black experience in America, the chorus swelled from five hundred to millions of voices. Today "Lift Every Voice and Sing" is alternately referred to as the "Black National Anthem"

Deeply patriotic, and clinging to a vision of an America healed of the scourge of racism, the brothers Johnson answered Francis Scott Key's anthem with realism, pathos, and hope. Whereas Key's song speaks of the external, military enemy, the Johnsons' chorus speaks of the more insidious internal enemy of racism. Whereas Key wrote of liberty already won and now demanding defense, the Johnsons wrote of liberty delayed, eventually promised, seen, but not yet fully acheived.

In this anthology, the editors give us an history of this deeply moving piece of music, and a chronology of its authors. They also give us one hundred short reponses to the song -- almost meditations -- by Americans of every skin hue. Finally, the text includes a pictoral display of the 20th century, American, black experience which is a treasure in and of itself.

This is more than a coffee table book. This is a book for all Americans to read and re-read: for in this text are planted the seeds of tolerance and understanding which our nation so desperately requires.

I have found nearly every book in the "Little Colonel" series, some being first editions. I prefer the older editions, despite the numerous "racial slurs," because they are the product that the author intended to present. I have heard from various sources that the later editions have been revised, removing the colloquiallisms and unifying Lloyd's speech patterns and mannerisms with those of the other characters. I call this a shame. Obviously, no harm was meant by the author when she portrayed the African-American servants as she did, and reading Lloyd say, "...honah," rather than "honor" paints a lot more colorful picture of her character. In rating this series, I must declare it a "must read" for both boys and girls. The morals and lessons are invaluable, and would be a refreshing balm for the wounds today's youth are suffering from, even at the youngest age. I do believe if I had read the tale of "The Three Weavers," as told in "The Little Colonel At Boarding School," MY life would have been touched, sparing me much grief in later years. So, parents, grandparents, caring adults, find these literary jewels and READ them with a child. Their lives and yours will be the richer for it.

My mother was born in 1896, She read all the Little Colonel books and read them to me. I read them to my children and grandchildren and now have a greatgranddaughter who will get my old old and dearly loved copies.These books teach a love of classics as well as good moral values, plus,providing interesting stories.

I have a complete set of the Little Colonel books that my mother accumulated for me over a period of years in the 1940's, when they were already long out of print. A classic Shirley Temple movie of the late 1930's (I think) was based on the first book, but I enjoyed the later ones even more. I am delighted to see them reissued after all these years. Lloyd Sherman and the other characters introduced in the later books (The Little Colonel's House Party and succeeding titles) were almost as real to me, when I was 8 to 12 years old, as my own friends. My favorite character was not Lloyd herself, who seemed overprivileged and a little too perfect, but Elizabeth Lloyd Lewis (Betty), the daughter of one of Lloyd's mother's girlhood friends. The stories also provide fascinating insights into post-Civil War Southern society.

If you like lighthearted fun to read stories- this book is for you- it is a collection of 3 short stories by stephanie bond where laughs/comedy are the main drawing point.

1. irresistable- about an artist who is secretly taking phermones and falls in love with an attorney who may or may not be attracted to her because of her new chemicals.

2. kids is a 4 letter word- is about an interior designer who becomes the not so willing baby sitter of 3 little hellions when she is out on assignment to remake their dad's mansion.

3. wife is a 4 letter word- is about a cancelled weddding and what happens when the groom and maid of honor decide to take the honey moon trip together

all stories are full of laughs and very fun to read-

If you like lighthearted fun to read stories- this book is for you- it is a collection of 3 short stories by stephanie bond where laughs/comedy are the main drawing point.

1. irresistable- about an artist who is secretly taking phermones and falls in love with an attorney who may or may not be attracted to her because of her new chemicals.

2. kids is a 4 letter word- is about an interior designer who becomes the not so willing baby sitter of 3 little hellions when she is out on assignment to remake their dad's mansion.

3. wife is a 4 letter word- is about a cancelled weddding and what happens when the groom and maid of honor decide to take the honey moon trip together

all stories are full of laughs and very fun to read-

I just received my order yesterday and couldn't wait to start reading Lovestruck. I am having such a good time reading it! Funny, fresh and well written. I'm so caught up in the stories I hate to put the book down, but I had to, so I could urge other readers to get this book, you won't be sorry!

To the outside world, Mahler was a gifted researcher and analyst who had authored many groundbreaking papers and books that revolutionized how we view child development. Her insight was heralded as the golden key to understanding child pathology. Many of us came to love Mahler through her innovative work and her words. And now, after decades of research, author Bond (who worked for Mahler) has given us a look of the woman behind the mask.

As Bond's lens focuses on Mahler, we begin to see into the dark depths of this complex woman. We are exposed to her quick temper and intolerance of anything less then perfection. She was a woman on a mission. We discover there were myriad conflicting interviews and memos--many hated her, but many loved her, as well. And all the while, whether they loved her or hated her; they surrounded her and basked in her status as a "living legend."

It is said, "Eyes are the mirror of the soul." Bond relates how in infancy Mahler had the ability to stare down her wet-nurse with the eyes of a lynx so she would continue to cradle her. A lynx has the ability "to immediately tell truth from error," according to author Bond. The infant Mahler was born equipped with the observation tools she needed to fulfill her destiny.

Bond begins with Mahler's birth in Hungary and parallels her life with the relentless advancement of Hitler's war machine. Her mother was only a teenager when she became faced with the pregnancy of an unwanted child. Years later, her mother gave birth to another daughter, whom her mother favored. To emotionally survive, Mahler became attached to her father, and she idealized and emulated him on an intellectual level.

We see how Mahler overcame early academia hurdles at a time when girls were not allowed in high school. But in typical Mahler fashion, she found a way. She left home, completed her studies, became a medical student and earned her diploma. Later in analysis, her bungling analyst rejected her and said she could not analyze her, which was a requirement in Malher's profession. It nearly cost her a place in the coveted Vienna analytic community. Mahler had shared her all only to be horribly rejected. This seemed to be another piece of Mahler's life that impacted the formation of her developmental concepts

As Hitler unleashes his storm troopers, Mahler escapes with only the clothes on her back, leaving her family behind in peril.

Far away in America, Mahler eventually secures grants to begin her research and her conceptualization of the pre-Oedipal phase, namely "symbiosis," the four sub-phases of "separation-individuation," and then "on to object constancy." These developmental blueprints emerged from years of research done by a team that observed mothers and their children. Theory formulation, of course, did not happen in a vacuum and the author makes clear that Mahler's concepts grew out of intellectual conversations with her colleagues. She didn't like to think alone and surrounded herself with professional peers and friends. Bond implies that this served as a sort of "trial symbiosis," a need that was unresolved from the relationship with her mother.

Bond illustrates for us how Mahler's arrested developmental framework from her childhood was perhaps the original template for her theories, which was reflected in her research. It was if she knew where she was headed all along - driven by instinct and insight from her own unfinished developmental business. Mahler seemed to oscillate between the symbiotic libidinal pull and the resolution of the rapprochement crisis. Bond sprinkles bright commentary throughout and correlates Mahler's own developmental snags and milestones to Mahler's theories.

The author brings us ringside to the embattled personal, brilliant, and complicated life of Mahler through photos, memos, interviews, data, her professional publications and more. She depicts Mahler much like a courageous explorer who discovers the world is indeed round and then, in certain elite professional circles, is snubbed for it.

To my surprise, author Bond includes a chapter on highlights from a film interview with Mahler as she candidly dispenses concerned advice to new mothers. Many of the questions directed at Mahler were challenging, e.g., in addressing the importance of the mother-infant dyad, she was asked, "What about mothers that have to work and are not available to their children all the time?" Good question, and as is well known, theories formulated within a nice tidy framework can often be impractical in actual application. The interview questions challenged Mahler, but she unfailing responded to the "what ifs" with clarity and an almost uncanny personal insight.

All in all, Bond shows us how the name of Margaret Mahler became bigger then one woman. Her theories seem infallible, unlike the woman behind them. It brings to mind a saying I recall: "Keep your heroes afar because if you get to know them, then you will find out they are really human after all." I think the Dr. Sam Vaknin said it best, "For she was Eve, no less, in the field of child psychology and therapy."
Kathi Stringer, author of the book "5150, The One Who Flew Into the Cuckoo's Nest"

This is the story of a child unloved by her mother, adored by her father, rejected by her peers, admired by her students, hated by her ostensible friends. A tough, no-nonsense European forced by the Nazi cataclysm into a tough and no-nonsense New World where she flourished and created one of the most insightful theoretical bodies of work in psychoanalysis. Never really a therapist, Mahler was at her best teaching and researching.

On the surface, the book is merely a recounting of her times, life, and work. But, it is much more than that. It is a fascinating study of the founts of creativity and of the inevitable and agonizing interaction between one's inner dynamics and outer circumstances and one's output and art. For, Mahler was an artist whose raw materials were her observations of mothers and children in the wilds of her itinerant laboratories.

The book delicately and empathically - but never sycophantly - traces Mahler's battle against a legion of inner demons (her "Repetition Compulsion"). She was a tortured soul who sought to alleviate her torment by deciphering and deconstructing the mechanics and dynamics of early infancy. Motherhood looms large in this barren woman's work as do love (of which she was consistently deprived) and freedom. Her lasting theoretical contributions, the Separation-Individuation subphases, and the scores of child therapists she had trained over the years are her true offspring. She never felt a real woman. Well, she was wrong. For she was Eve, no less, in the field of child psychology and therapy. Sam Vaknin, author of "Malignant Self-love: Narcissism Revisited".

Reviewed by Karrie Grobben for RebeccasReads (6/08)

Margaret Mahler grew up in an oppressive and difficult period for women and for Jews--she was both. Anti-Semitism was steadily rising in the wake of WWI, from which Hungary had suffered bitter effects and women, especially well brought up upper middle-class women, were not expected to doggedly pursue higher education and a career. Mahler may have been at still more of a disadvantage, having been exposed to her mother's indifference and blatant favoritism of her younger and more feminine sister. Yet Margaret, even as Hitler steadily grew in popularity, overcame every hurdle to pursue her doctorate and study what was still a relatively new field: psychiatry. Later she would be known for many things: her brilliant work with children, the development of separation-individuation theory, her ambition, her oddities and ultimately, her humanity.

The story of Margaret Mahler, as author Bond announces in the opening pages, "encompasses her shortcomings as well as her strengths," and indeed, Mahler has plenty of those. Many accounts of her behavior suggest stubbornness bordering on pigheadedness as well as self-absorption and insensitivity. Many of even Mahler's closest friends had to admit that where there was genius, there was an equal amount of eccentricity. Even so, I found it difficult not to be fascinated by this strange character, whose upbringing clearly scarred her at an early age and yet really kindled her thirst for knowledge and eventually became the inspiration for the development of her groundbreaking concept of separation-individuation. Beyond this, how can you help but respect and admire a woman who defeated every obstacle and ultimately got what she wanted?

At least, she attained the goals she set for herself as a young woman. Mahler was always intrigued by Freudian theory and though she would eventually achieve the most professionally through psychoanalytical research, she did earn her clinical degree as an analyst. She became well known for her innovative approaches in the field and her theories, according to some noted psychoanalysts today, remain relevant. Yet she never resolved the unsteady, though loving, relationship with her father. She never forgave or stopped being obsessed with the relationship between mothers and small children, after having felt so disconnected to her own mother. Her personal relationships, with lovers, husbands and friends continued to be dysfunctional. The book is not afraid to show both sides of Mahler: both how charming she could be and how warm, how much some loved her and still do, as well as her flaws.

There is a glossary of terms in the back of the book and a comprehensive list of resource materials used. Even so, some readers unfamiliar with psychoanalysis may find the use of psychiatric terms to be overwhelming. In order to really enjoy this read, you must be interested in more than her achievements and actions--this is, to some extent, a genuine analysis of Margaret Mahler as a person and as a psychoanalyst. As such, Freudian psychoanalysis of that period is discussed, explained and compared to modern psychoanalysis where it is called for.

I recommend this book particularly to readers with an interest in Freudian psychoanalysis and its workings but I also urge those unfamiliar with it to give it a try. Above all else, even her professional success, Margaret Mahler was a fascinating woman.

A tax audit brings Denise Cooke and her ex-husband Redford back together. Three years were not enough to make her forget his logic defying effect, and she fears that seeing him again will once again awaken her best-forgotten wild side. Certainly their brief time together in Los Vegas was proof enough that she was incapable of maintaining her ordinary logic where Redford Demoss is concerned. While their marriage lasted long enough to file taxes together, their subsequent annulment prevented any further contact until now.

Denise has never told current boyfriend about her first husband. While their relationship lacks the vivid spark that characterized her relationship with Redmond, it is stable, comfortable and predictable. After two years of mild courtship, she accepts his proposal just before she must see Redford again. And while the conclusion of this story might seem rather inevitable given the genre, the humor, levity and delight of the journey makes MY FAVORITE MISTAKE a delightful read.

Author Stephanie Bond pens a vividly refreshing romance in MY FAVORITE MISTAKE. Perhaps her own past corporate world lends the fabulously entertaining heroine her convincing charm. While Ms Bond's background is computing and Denise Cooke's is financials, the commonality of the carefully controlled office experience lends the novel a crisp reality while sensual temptation gives Denise an even more convincing edge. From the running of the brides and Denise's ongoing eBay bid to get her dress back, to the sensual temptation of the hunky former marine, Ms Bond's deft, first person narrative departs from Harlequin's usual narrative style. Indeed, MY FAVORITE MISTAKE certainly illustrates the author's gift for weaving original, brilliant romance that readers find impossible to put down. MY FAVORITE MISTAKE comes very highly recommended.

I found Denise to be comical and Redford just plain hot. A quick read, NOT a mistake to pick this one up!

This is one of my favorite storylines - reunited lovers. Stephanie Bond has created a hero to die for. The characters are believable and likeable. The secondary characters were outstanding - especially Jackie - these people were grown ups, mature and facing problems as adults.

There was also a lot of humor in this book and I read it in one day. I plan to check out more Stephanie Bond for sure!

This book goes beyond other computer books, including the Dummies' series, to explain the stuff in plain English, with a lot of humor thrown in. I particularly liked the chapter on helping kids think, using the PC--critical thinking..something that's clearly lacking these days...

Despite the title, this book's designed for Dads AND Moms, and it's a good one...well written with a sense of humor...it breaks jargon down to human English..Best chapters were on Developing Critical Thinking Skills, using the PC; Raising a Computer Smart Daughter and Keeping Kids Safe on the Internet...There's also a good primer on buying a personal computer. Any parent wanting to guide their child through the digital age should pick up this book.

Excellent down to earth resource for computer ignorant and/or illiterate parents who would like to try to keep up with their children when it comes to the computer.